1. Never enough?
In the survey, most people said it would take a pretty significant pay bump to deliver contentment. The respondents, who had a median salary of $65,000 a year, said a median of $95,000 would make them happy and less stressed. The highest earners, with a median income of $250,000, gave a median response of $350,000.
2. Prices rising faster than wages
Source: Bloomberg
3. Inflation heading to 2%
Source: Alpine Macro
Many have mistakenly believed that wage growth determines the underlying inflation trend. This is wrong. It is not wage, but wage minus labour productivity growth that determines where inflation goes.
This Alpine Macro chart shows that the difference between private sector wage and labor productivity has plunged to 1.4%, suggesting that the underlying inflation could undershoot the 2% target next year.
4. Pretty soon all US tax revenue will be used to pay debt interest
Source: Charles-Henry Monchau, E.J Antoni, WallStreetSilver, BEA
The US government collects about $2.5 trillion per year in personal income taxes. Of that about $1 trillion per year (40%) is being consumed by interest on the national debt.
Interest on the debt is growing as old cheap debt matures and gets refinanced at the new higher rates. Plus new debt added every year.
Within a few more years, at this pace, 100% of personal income taxes will be going to pay interest on the US national debt.